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High court takes up issue of consent as an affirmative defense to a lewd act accomplished by force.

By Richard Binder

pThe California Supreme Court agreed last week to review a divided appellate panel decision that overturned three counts against a 19-year-old accused of kissing and fondling a 13-year-old cousin and an 11-year-old neighbor. The 6th District Court of Appeal in San Jose, Calif. held, in an unpublished decision, that convictions based on duress imply that the victims#39; will has been overcome, making consent a potential defense. The defendant argued on appeal that the girls had consented to the acts and that jury instructions stating that it is not a defense that a child may have consented denied him a fair trial./ppa href=http://www.law.com/jsp/nlj/PubArticleNLJ.jsp?id=1202426807064Read the full story at emNLJ./em/aemspan style=font-family: Trebuchet MS;/span/em/p

Full post as published by Legal Pad | LA on December 17, 2008 (boomark / email).